Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to communications in a network and more particularly to providing enhanced features to an Internet streaming system.
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an application-layer signaling protocol commonly used for establishing sessions over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Such a session can be used for a variety of purposes such as Internet telephony, e.g., Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), audio and/or video conferencing, interactive gaming, etc. Generally speaking, SIP can be used by an initiating device to request a location of another device to be contacted or connected.
Internet protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a system proposed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) providing VoIP services. Similar versions have been specified by other standard bodies like the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Telecoms and Internet converged Services and Protocols for Advanced Networks (TISPAN), Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), etc. Generally speaking IMS includes an architecture implemented or built upon a SIP system. The intention of IMS is to provide enhanced features, such as generally provided addition security, quality of service, policy management, and other features to SIP. For example, IMS proposes to provide authentication, authorization, logging, billing, and other services.
However, IMS provides an architecture that is extremely complex and difficult and/or costly to implement. Furthermore, the components of IMS are hard-coded with predefined, standard elements and the relationships between each element pre-defined in a rigid architecture. As such, IMS is inflexible and not easily extensible. Hence, there is a need for methods and systems that provide enhanced features to a VoIP, SIP, or other streaming system but in a more easily implemented and more extensible architecture than IMS.